Paul Rose's Windermere Debris Dive

On Saturday 2 March, a team of people from Impact UK were involved in the biggest Debris Dive in the world. In total 262 divers gathered in Windermere and retrieved 10 tonnes of rubbish from the lake. The debris will now be transformed into beautiful artworks and objects d’art by local school children.Paul Rose, the mastermind behind this huge environmental initiative, is a consultant with Impact. When he is not presenting TV programmes like Oceans and Britain’s Secret Seas or raising awareness on climate change and other environmental issues he is working with Impact clients on these global concerns.

Paul said, "The amount of debris entering our seas is so vast that it’s practically immeasurable. And as our oceans are the largest, least understood and least protected ecosystem on the planet, it can be difficult to grasp the problem. By debris-diving inland lakes and then producing beautiful works of art from the rubbish we can engage large audiences in the ocean debris issue. When we look at the rubbish collected from my lake dives it's easy to draw parallels with the ocean debris as it brings things into a smaller scale. When I'm not at sea I bring the sea and its’ messages inland!"

Samantha Carey, Head of Impact UK said "Impact are proud of our Lake District heritage and we are always looking for ways to engage in local community and environmental issues. We have been working with Paul for the last two months to get all the logistics, operational and safety support in place to make this record-breaking undertaking work smoothly. We are providing a team of 30 staff, vehicles and equipment to help pull tonnes of rubbish out of the biggest lake in England today to raise awareness of this global issue.”

Please scroll through the images below for some photos of the Impact team on the day: